"That's some catch, that catch 22"

"I'll just tell you about this madman stuff ..."



"My bow and arrow's to hunt boys and kill them. The world's better off without them. Spurty scum, that's what little boys are made of."~David Mitchell Black Swan Green 

"You mean there's a catch?"  

"Sure there's a catch," Doc Daneeka replied. "Catch-22. Anyone who wants to get out of combat duty isn't really crazy." 

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane then he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle. 

"That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed. 

"It's the best there is," Doc Daneeka agreed. 

Yossarian saw it clearly in all its spinning reasonableness. There was an elliptical precision about its perfect pairs of parts that was graceful and shocking, like good modern art, and at times Yossarian wasn't quite sure that he saw it all, just the way he was never quite sure about good modern art or the flies Orr saw in Appleby's eyes. He had Orr's word to take for the flies in Appleby's eyes. 

"Oh, they're there all right," Orr had assured him about the flies in Appleby's eyes after Yossarian's fist fight in the officers' club, "although he probably doesn't even know it. That's why he can't see things as they really are." 

"How come he doesn't know it?" inquired Yossarian. 

"Because he's got flies in his eyes," Orr explained with exaggerated patience. "How can he see he's got flies in his eyes if he's got flies in his eyes?" 

It made as much sense as anything else, and Yossarian was willing to give Orr the benefit of the doubt because Orr was from the wilderness outside New York City and knew so much more about wildlife than Yossarin did, and because Orr, unlike Yossarian's mother, father, sister, brother, aunt, uncle-in-law, teacher, spiritual leader, legislator, neighbor and newspaper, had never lied to him about anything crucial before.

1982?

Michael:

Watched Return of the King a few days ago: "Frodo, don't ever let go". Are we really going back to the eighties? It seems so weird, because I lived there, while for you it is some kind of dream land or TV sitcom, which is sort of how it is with me now, anyway. This image is speaking to me again, the Fisher King on the Moon:

hey Michael, I (doug) did some time in the 80s as well. Actually, it is the year 82 that is haunting me. I was ten, the same age Elliott was when ET came to him in the film released that year. (I have another 80s year, 1989, a revolution year that haunts me a bit too, but it's a tricksy one cuz it is also 68, 86, and 98. All these are the same, we're just spinning. But I'm being led back to '82 (when Depeche Mode's A Broken Frame was released. It's the one featuring the song "Secret Garden" that I keep beating over all your heads.

See, the garden of Eden is childhood. We need to get back to our selves beyond what've become to survive. A moment is here for a return to magical thinking. We definitely can move the historical age from the gut (chakra) to The Heart.

This is a call to go back in time! Remake it all anew. . .


Michael: Well, you know I came out in '82, when I was 22, so that is indeed some catch. Also the same year that the "gay cancer" was manifesting. I had a vivid dream last year of being taken up in a giant mushroom-shaped spaceship and then being deposited back in Seattle, but it was the 80's. There was something I needed to do, to make right, to correct some great error of that epoch. Still don't know really what that means, though I did have two friends with me on this time traveling journey - the three musketeers? 

A Message From The Future?

(1982)

(life out of balance):

(Down in space, it's always 1982)

Robots in Disguise

Alan:
A few days back I had the phrase "more than meets the eye" playing over and over in my head. At least now I know why.
I met this cartoonist years ago who did a one-panel comic strip ala FarSide (most of which were terribly unfunny) but there was one that made me laugh nonstop. It was a guy standing in front of an electrical closet and it read "Transformers: Exactly What You See"
If we are transforming the world into our image via the manifestation of reality, or even if we are just talking about seeing things through the vast filter of perspective, then these words have never rang more true:

G L M

The Singularity Is Near!


"And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth."
The scarlet woman is also a great city. Metropolis, where the SolarKing SuperMan reigns.

See also: "Baby lion" -> the Lion King 

Grace Jones: William's Blood in me. Born wicked.

The Story So Far

Those trees in whose dim shadow
The ghastly priest doth reign
The priest who slew the slayer,
And shall himself be slain. (Lord Macaulay)

Legend tells of a tree that stands in the center of the grove and is guarded heavily. No one was to break off its limbs, with the exception of a runaway slave, who was allowed, if he could, to break off one of the boughs. Upon breaking off a limb, the slave was then in turn granted the privilege to engage the Rex Nemorensis, the current king and priest of Diana in the region, in one on one mortal combat. If the slave prevailed, he became the next king for as long as he could defeat challengers. ("Diana Nemorensis")

It is necessary, in order to understand the Tarot, to go back in history to ... the time when succession was not through the first-born son of the King, but through his daughter. The king was therefore not king by inheritance, but by right of conquest. In the most stable dynasties, the new king was always a stranger, a foreigner; what is more, he had to kill the old king and marry that king’s daughter. This system ensured the virility and capacity of every king. The stranger had to win his bride in open competition. In the oldest fairy-tales, this motive is continually repeated. The ambitious stranger is often a troubadour; nearly always he is disguised, often in a repulsive form.... The custom is therefore developed into the condition so admirably investigated by Frazer in the Golden Bough. (This Bough is no doubt a symbol of the King’s Daughter herself). “The king’s daughter is all glorious within; her raiment is of wrought gold.” (Aleister Crowley)

The Italian paper Corriere della Sera is reporting that a phone call was made on Ruby's behalf claiming that she was the daughter of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, says the AP. Opposition groups have called for Berlusconi's resignation ... Karima Keyek, [is] the girl's real name ... (The Huffington Post)

Congresswoman Giffords is miraculously recovering from her head wound in Tucson - near Phoenix (= resurrection) - as if to reenact the tale of the Beast in the Book of Revelation who is described as doing just that, miraculously recovering from a severe head wound. Note that the shooter's last name "Loughner" means "healer," which finds further resonance in the recent Ophiuchus/"new Zodiac" buzz on the web and in the mainstream news as Ophiuchus is normally identified with Asclepius, a healer. (Goro Adachi)

And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. (Matthew 11:12)

Mu.

Barack.

All the ignorant are Egyptians. Egypt is the body, coming out of Egypt is coming out of the body, and passing the Red Sea, that is the water of destruction; or, in other words, generation. Those, however, who suppose themselves to have passed the Red Sea, are still liable to be assailed by the gods of destruction, whom Moses called the serpents of the desert, who bite and destroy those who had hoped to escape the power of the gods of generation. For these Moses exhibited the true and perfect serpent, on whom they who believed were not bitten by the gods of destruction. None but this true serpent, the perfect of the perfect, can save and deliver those who go out of Egypt, that is to say from the body and from the world. ("Perates")

Moo.

Mu (uppercase Μ, lowercase μ; Ancient Greek μῦ [mŷː]), Modern Greek μι or μυ [mi]) is the 12th letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 40. Mu was derived from the Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol for water (��) ... ("Mu")

M = ΛΛ = LL. Lara Logan.

And their dead bodies [shall lie] in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. (Revelation 11:8)

The City of the Pyramids is the home to those adepts that have crossed the great Abyss, having spilled all their blood in the Graal of Babalon. They have destroyed their earthly ego-identities, becoming nothing more than piles of dust (i.e. the remaining aspects of their True Selves without the self-sense of "I"). Within, they take on the name or title of Saint or Nemo (Latin for No-Man). In the system of A.'.A.'. they are called Masters of the Temple. ("Thelemic mysticism")

The story details Seymour's day on the beach, as his wife, Muriel, spends her time in a hotel room talking to her mother on the phone about clothing and Seymour's behavior.... While in the water, Seymour tells a story of the bananafish to a young girl named Sybil [Carpenter, from Whirly Wood]. The fish, he says, are "very ordinary looking" when they swim into a hole, but once in the hole, eat so much they cannot escape and subsequently die of banana fever. He then returns to his room where Muriel is sleeping, retrieves a gun from his luggage, sits down next to her and shoots himself in the right temple. ("A Perfect Day for Bananafish")

Bennu ... may have been pronounced something like *bānana. ("Bennu bird")

From the frozen waters
The king will rise again
With two suns in the sky ... (Bruce Dickinson, "Jerusalem")

Alan:

Here's a photo I had promised Eleleth weeks ago, but it slipped my mind. But, now that he mentions it, yes Virginia, the L.L. and the Beast go hand in hand.

E:
Perfect. I know it probably seems fairly callous to dwell on these things, but I'm trying desperately to extract some sanity from all of this madness. Ordo ab chao.

Michael:
My parking receipt from 2/10/11 seems oddly appropriate, since 14141 = NNA, somewhat close enough to banana. DNA = 4141.

Valid Only When Properly Displayed

"Is that a banana in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?" --Mae West

All the Mysteries of the Universe are eventually resolved into the Cosmic Dirty Joke.

 crystal:
Parking receipt: 14141/ANANA - reminds me that another name for The Great Mother (or Matter), the waters from which we all spring, is Ana or sometimes Dana. (Also known as the aforementioned The Scarlet Woman/Babalon/Maat/Isis etc etc). The crescent moon is a symbol of the divine feminine mother, which funny enough can be mirrored in the shape of a banana.
"Going bananas" is a description of going mad/crazy, interesting that another term for a "crazy" person is a LUNAtic, further connecting the moon/luna and banana.
I have never seen it, but Woody Allen made a film titled "Bananas" in 1971.

Woody Allen has also directed a couple of films starring Scarlett Johansson (as Alan called before, The Scarlet Woman).
All this talk of madness makes me think about a stream of thought I was having a couple days ago when contemplating the mask(s) of god, that god has multiple personality dis?order, or perhaps {banana}split personality? A different perspective begets a different experience. What better way to perpetually create than to peer through infinite eyes?

Ofelia

Those trees in whose dim shadow
The ghastly priest doth reign
The priest who slew the slayer,
And shall himself be slain. 
~Thomas Babington Macaulay



"And where we had thought to find an abomination, 
we shall find a god; 
where we had thought to slay another, 
we shall slay ourselves; 




where we had thought to travel outward, 
we shall come to the center of our own existence; 
where we had thought to be alone, 
we shall be with all the world." 
— Joseph Campbell (The Hero with a Thousand Faces)

"A poet doesn't invent his poetry—he finds it," he said, to no one in particular. "The place," he added slowly, "where Alph, the sacred river ran—was found out, not invented." (J.D. Salinger, "The Inverted Forest") 


A way a lone a last a loved a long the / riverrun, past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of shore to bend of bay, brings us by a commodius vicus of recirculation back to Howth Castle and Environs. (Finnegans Wake)

He explained that an Aleph is one of the points in space that contains all other points.

"The Aleph?" I repeated.

"Yes, the only place on earth where all places are -- seen from every angle, each standing clear, without any confusion or blending. I kept the discovery to myself and went back every chance I got. As a child, I did not foresee that this privilege was granted me so that later I could write the poem. . ."

~Jorge Luis Borges "The Aleph"

(The Aleph from Alper Yıldırım on Vimeo.)

"It's in the cellar under the dining room," he went on, so overcome by his worries now that he forgot to be pompous. "It's mine -- mine. I discovered it when I was a child, all by myself. The cellar stairway is so steep that my aunt and uncle forbade my using it, but I'd heard someone say there was a world down there. I found out later they meant an old-fashioned globe of the world, but at the time I thought they were referring to the world itself. One day when no one was home I started down in secret, but I stumbled and fell. When I opened my eyes, I saw the Aleph."

I tried to reason with him. "But isn't the cellar very dark?" I said.

"Truth cannot penetrate a closed mind. If all places in the universe are in the Aleph, then all stars, all lamps, all sources of light are in it, too."

~Jorge Luis Borges "The Aleph"

Du mußt dein Leben ändern

for here there is no place
that does not see you.

"Archaic Torso of Apollo" (Rainer Maria Rilke)

Cleared for takeoff

In a few minutes, the Phoenix should take to the skies once again. With Astro-knots/nuts Boe and Bowen (Dave Bowman) on board.

Isn't this little space opera a year too late?

Meanwhile, warships have arrived in Sirius.

And, just as I'm about to post this, Michael sends me a sync-ready Monopoly story, where the new gameboard features a Hal computer (or as Michael wrote "all knowing tower of Sauron").

I was going to do a post on my blog today about Monopoly, since I had covered a different Monopoly remake in January, and connected it to Mars - which seemed to foreshadow Revolution in Cairo(which is named after Mars).

I agree with Michael and Doug. We're ready to pass go. We're cleared for takeoff.

Let's fly.

Re: finding our true self truly the center of it all

Well Doug & Allan may I have this first dance with you? What you said about being the center of it all
I always have Deepak's Merlin book close to me. I was just reading the chapter about Merlin teaching Arthur that he is the center of the universe no matter where you go:

Merlin's robe was embroidered with moons and stars, and the boy Arthur wondered why that was so. "Let me show you" Merlin offered. He took Arthur and sat him on a hilltop. "Now tell me the farthest thing you can see" 

"I see the forest extending for miles until it reaches the horizon. That's as far as I can see"said Arthur.

"And what is farther than that?" Merlin asked.

"the edge of the world, the sky, and the sun, I suppose"

Arthur said.

"And beyond that? " The stars and them empty space, extending to infinity."

"And would that be true if I turned you around? " asked Merlin. The boy nodded. "very good, "the wizard said. "Now follow me. "He led the boy to the stream where they often napped in the afternoon. "Now what is the farthest thing you can see?" Merlin asked. "I cant see very far in deep woods like this, only to the last bend of the stream down there. "Artur pointed about a hundred yards off. "But you know that the stream runs to the sea, and the sea to the horizon?" Arthur agreed. "Then the horizon would give way to the edge of the world, the sky, the sun, the stars, and infinte empty space, just as before?" Merlin said. "Yes" Arthur replied. Once more the wizard looked pleased and led his disciple in to the crystal cave. "Now what is the farthest you can see? he asked.

"It is dim, and all I can see are the walls of the cave," but before you ask me, I will agree that outside this cave are the forest , the hills, the horizon, the sky, sun, stars, and empty space.

"Then mark well," Merlin said in a louder voice. "No matter where you go, the same infinity extends in all directions. You are thus the center of the universe no matter where you go."

"That seems like a trick" Arthur protested. "No, the trick is played by your senses, which fool you into believing that you are locilized, In truth, every point in the cosmos is the same point, a focus for infinity in all directions. There is no here or there, no near of far. As the wizard sees it, there is only everywhere and nowhere. Knowing this you would were moons and stars too. Without the illusion of your senses, you would realize that the moon and stars are right here beside you".

When will I realize that?" The boy asked.

"In time, as the turmoil of your soul settles, you will see the heavens in your own being."

c) Deepak Chopra- The way of the wizard ISBN 0-517-70434-X

To me this book is sync. All the things I know inside but could never explain suddenly came to me 2 years ago on Christmas. A woman whom Id met on a forum but never met in person send it to me all the way from the USA it came at exactly the right time and it taught me that there really is no distance. Perception is everything, and I think that the Mask of God is the perfect name for this initiative.


<3

en:


“God is an intelligible sphere, whose center is everywhere, and whose circumference is nowhere.”  
;)
to look out is to look in. . . .


"As viewed by astronauts from the moon, the earth lacks those lines of sociopolitical division that are so prominent on maps. And as recognized here below, the web of interlacing socioeconomic dependencies that now enfolds the planet is of one life. All that is required is a general change of vision to accord with these contemporary facts. And that this will occur is certain. It is, in fact, already occurring. Moreover, the vision required is nothing new, nor unnatural. What are unnatural, artificial, and contrived, are the separations."

Joseph Campbell, The Inner Reaches of Outer Space, p. 124.


"In time, as the turmoil of your soul settles, you will see the heavens in your own being."